I’m not some random schmuck off the street blowing hot
air for shits and gigs.

I’ve been in the iron game for a long time and,
through inordinate amounts of trial and error, I’ve realized the traditional deload
that we’ve been told is essentialis
actually…well…not.

To understand why, let’s start from the very
beginning.

What Is a Deload?

A deload is a purposeful
reduction in training volume & intensity for the purposes of recovery,
injury prevention, and improved performance.

The concept of deloading
stems from the law of supercompensation.

Supercompensation
represents the training process in 3 major phases.

Phase 1: Application of Stress

The applied stress is
comprised of the workout in question and everything therein. For example, when
talking about the applied stress, you can be referring to an
individual repetition, an entire set, or even the workout as a whole. The
stress (workout) causes fatigue, muscular damage, etc
which necessitates the second phase.

Phase 2: Recovery

Be it active rest
between sets, an entire day of rest between workouts, or a whole week geared
towards recovery, phase 2 allows the body to recover and regenerate back to
baseline.

Phase 3: Supercompensation

The 3rd phase,
sometimes referred to as therebound
phase, is when the body effectively rebounds from a fatigued state to
a new, higher level of performance.

How Does This Relate to a Deload?

The deload is phase 2: the recovery phase.

Created with the intentions of aiding recovery,
avoiding overuse injuries, and realizing a higher level of performance, the
traditional deload week is often touted as an essential component of everyone’s training program.

I disagree.

But more on that later.

What Does
the Traditional Deload Week Look Like?

A typical deload week is loosely based around the
following three guidelines:

1.One
full and pre-planned week of
little-to-no training stress following three weeks of relatively high training
volumes and intensities.

2.Do
not exceed 40-60% of your one repetition maximum (1RM) the entire week.

While not inherently bad recommendations – they all certainly
have a time and place - these, like all generalized guidelines, fail to take
the individual trainee and their specific needs, goals, and preferences into account.

As a result, we’re left with absolutist recommendations
that, while beneficial for some, leave others with sub-optimal guidelines.

Is
the Traditional Deload Good For Anyone?

Of course.

While it’s not right for everyone, there are certain
populations who benefit from this style of programming.

To name a few:

1.Professional Athletes:
Not to be confused with high level weight lifters, professional athletes
greatly benefit from utilizing the traditional deload. Reason being, the main priority when coaching pro athletes
is to minimize the risk of injury while maintaining/improving performance.
In this case, deloading every fourth week is a simple and effective strategy to
reduce stress on the body while still getting a sufficient training effect.

2.Old(er)
and Experienced Lifters: The older we get the harder it
becomes to adequately recover from strength training. As such, when working
with older (think 30yrs+) and experienced lifters it’s smart to incorporate the
traditional deload as a means of preventing overuse injuries while
simultaneously improving performance. I’d note, an older individual with
little-to-no strength training experience likely doesn’t need to deload as the
weights they’re handling won’t be anywhere near challenging enough.

3.Trainees
with Recurring Injuries: If a lifter is continually getting
hurt over and over again…they should first check their exercise technique and
general programming strategies as that’s where they’re probably screwing up.
That being said, with individuals who appear to be more injury-prone,
incorporating a traditional deload is a smart strategy to use in order to reduce
their risk of pain and injury.

So…What’s
Wrong with the Traditional Deload?

A lot.

Not only does it neglect individual needs and
preferences, it fails to account for inevitable variances in how you feel on a
day-to-day basis.

Cybernetic periodization, a term coined by the late
Mel Siff, essentially refers to accounting for and modifying your program based
on your subjective perceptionof how
the weights feel on that specific day.

This skill, learning how to listen to your body and
understand what it needs based on how you feel, is arguably the single most
important skill to master for both coaches and lifters a like.

So, now, even though you feel incredible you need to
scale your training back to a point that feels unproductively easy.

And this is all based on the assumption that this
rest week is going to make you better in the long-run?

I call bull shit.

The idea that you need to deload every 4 weeks in
order to adequately recover is false.

Period.

Does it work?

Yea, of course. Big whoop. Everything works.

Is it essential?

Absolutely not.

I know countless high level lifters of world class
caliber who have never utilized the
traditional deload week.

Not even once.

Personally, I can count on 1-hand how many week-long
deloads I’ve taken in my entire life and they were because I was sick,
travelling, and/or swamped with work.

My
Point is This…

We’ve been led to believe the traditional deload is
absolutely essential to your long-term health and success in strength training

But that’s a myth.

You don’t need to deload every 4 weeks to get the
most out of your training.

You just don’t.

And while it goes against what we’ve been told for
years and years, it’s the truth.

Am I saying the traditional deload is worthless?

Of course not.

It obviously works and it works very well.

But what I am saying is that it’s not essential and if you don’t want to do it
then you don’t have to.

What’s more…

There’s
More Than 1 Way to Deload

Shocker, huh?

Whoulda thunk there was more than 1 way to take a
rest from training and allow your body sufficient time to recover?

The reality is there are countless ways to deload
effectively that doesn’t include pre-planning an entire easy week of training.

More importantly, there are ways to incorporate both
cybernetic periodization and sufficient deloading periods that will allow you
to truly get the most bang for your buck.

Here are 3 of my personal favorites:

The
Autoregulatory Deload

Reserved for only my most advanced lifters, I also
call this the play it by ear deload.

Essentially, this deloading strategy entails taking
a light or easy day only when your body really needs it.

There are no planned deloads.

None.

Per usual, as in any good program, there will be
waves of varying volumes and intensities but none of your deloads will be
pre-planned.

Instead, you’ll focus on listening to your body and
understanding when it’s time to push the envelope as well as when it’s smarter
to back off.

Through following this strategy you will have much
more variability in your training but, in my experience, this is unquestionably
the best method for highly advanced lifters.

How’s it work?

Simple.

Feel
amazing? Follow the program as-is and push yourself to the
limit. You better be trying to hit some big PR’s.

Feel
good? Follow the program as-is and lift some serious
weight. No need to go balls-to-the-wall but definitely push yourself.

Feel
eh?
Follow the program as-is but don’t feel obligated to do anything crazy. Use
this as more of a technique day and focus on getting all of your reps with
perfect form without stressing too much about the load.

Feel
like dog shit? You have two options:

Follow the program as-is but drastically
reduce the days overall volume & intensity. You should be in & out of
the gym in less than 30-min.

Take the day away from the barbell and
go through some movement therapy.
Warm-up, foam roll, and do some light bodyweight exercises just to get the
blood pumping. You should be in & out of the gym in less than 30-min.

What’s important to note about the autoregulatory deload is that you don’t need to spend an entire week taking it easy in the gym.

Rather, you go in every day and moderate intensity
based on how you feel.

It takes a lot of dedicated practice and honest self assessment to become
proficient with it, but once you learn how to do it properly you’ll never go
back to the traditional deload.

The
Max Effort Deload

Similar to the
play it by ear deload, this strategy prioritizes cybernetic periodization but
with slightly more structure.

Here’s how it works:

1.Plan
to have 2 back-to-back deload days (not weeks) every 4-8 weeks. Personally,
I’ve found the 6-week mark to be the sweet spot for most lifters.

2.You
don’t need to plan the exact deload
days, but just know going into the program that between weeks 4 & 8 you are
going to take 2 light(er) days when you feel like you need them most.

3.When
those 2 days come around (usually at the 6-week mark), reduce the load or
completely nix your max effort (main strength) movements. In other words, drop
the weight to somewhere between 40-65%1RM or just skip them entirely and move
on to your pre-planned accessory work.

Depending on how you feel, you can
either go after your accessory work really hard or take it nice and easy to
give your body a bit of a break.

It
all depends on how you feel.

The
Reverse De-Load

The most structured of my deloading strategies, this
is my version of the traditional week-long deload and, in my opinion, it makes
a lot more sense.

While it doesn’t inherently account for cybernetic
periodization – that’d be something the individual would have to pay attention
to on a daily basis either way – the structure allows for a great deal of
variance and progression based on how you feel.

Here’s how it works:

Week
1:
The first week is your “deload” week. Seeing as it’s the first week of the
program, this is the time for you to feel things out, get confident with the
program, and focus on perfecting technique in all movements. As an added benefit,
through taking an initial light(er) week it should drastically help to reduce
delayed onset muscle sorness (DOMS) at the initiation of the program.

Weeks
2 – 4: Each subsequent week should become progressively
more challenging from a volume and/or intensity perspective.

This is where cybernetic
periodization comes into play – you really need to base every training day on
how you feel – but, generally speaking, weeks 2-4 are meant to become progressively
more difficult.

Then, once Week 5 rolls around,
you’re ready for another “deload” week which will be spent getting to
understand your new program, mastering technique, and prepping for the
following 3 weeks.

Making
Sense of It All

The fitness industry is rife with myths, fallacies,
& dogma and, I’ll be honest, it pisses me off to no end.

While glamorizing the traditional deload is far from
the worst thing I’ve ever heard, touting it as the end-all-be-all of strength
training is a display of pure ignorance.

Like everything in the fitness industry, the deload
is neither the best nor worst thing in the world. Per usual, the effectiveness
of the deload is almost entirely based on the individual, their needs, goals,
preferences, and how intelligently they utilize it within their programming.

So
what should you do?

Experiment with them all and find what works best
for you.

There is no “right” or “wrong” with this stuff.

When I said everything
works I truly meant it.

Everything does
work.

Strength is far less complicated than most internet
experts make it out to be.

Lift weight.

Eat and sleep

Lift more weight.

Repeat.

Never Minimal. Never Maximal. Always Optimal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jordan Syatt is a strength training and nutritional consultant. He is a World Record Powerlifter, featured in publications such as T-Nation, Muscle & Fitness, and Men’s Fitness Magazine. He is also Precision Nutrition Certified, Westside-Barbell Certified and owner of http://www.syattfitness.com.